The Black List 2011: Top Unproduced Screenplays

The 2011 Black List, the Top Unproduced Screenplays of the year has been released. The best unproduced screenplays from The Black List 2011 is compiled by votes from over 300 “execs, agency guys, and high-level assistants. Titled The Black List, the compendium highlights both established screenwriters and up-and-comers, and has served as a launching pad in the past for projects like Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, and (500) Days of Summer. Last year’s list included Margin Call, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Hunger Games, and Snow White and the Huntsman.”

Regarding the validity of The Black List, things to keep in mind:

some of these screenplays have already been acquired and are already in development, though…none will have entered principal photography by December 31, 2011. Also worth pointing out is that, as in previous years, there have been rumors that some of the participants have been accused of using the Black List to promote their own clients or friends. Finally,…“The Black List is not a ‘best of’ list. It is, at best, a ‘most liked’ list.

This year, scripts had to receive at least six mentions to be included on the The Black List.

The full 2011 Black List of unproduced screenplays is below.

133 votes: “The Imitation Game” by Graham Moore

The story of British World War II cryptographer Alan Turing, who broke several German codes but in later life was prosecuted for being homosexual, which led to his suicide.

Agent: Creative Artists Agency — J.P. Evans, Jacqueline Sacerio

Manager:The Safran Co. — Tom Drumm

Producers: Ido Ostrowsky, Nora Grossman producing for Warner Bros.

84 votes: “When the Street Lights Go” by Chris Hutton, Eddie O’Keefe

In the early 1980s, a town suffers through the aftermath of the murder of a high school girl and a teacher.

Agency: WME — Simon Faber, Sarah Self

Manager: Tariq Merhab Management — Tariq Merhab

Producers: Imagine Entertainment

59 votes: “Chewie” by Evan Susser, Van Robichaux

A satirical, behind-the-scenes look at the making of “Stars Wars” through the eyes of Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca.

Agency: WME — Mike Esola

Manager: Industry Entertainment — Jess Rosenthal

53 votes: “The Outsider” by Andrew Baldwin

In post-World War II Japan, an American former prisoner of war rises in the yakuza.

A man goes on a three-state crime spree with an accomplice, his 11-year old daughter.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency: John Garvey, Stuart Manashil

Manager: Silent R Management: Jewerl Ross

Producers: Pearl Street Productions production for Warner Bros.

33 votes: “In the Event of a Moon Disaster” by Mike Jones

An alternate telling of the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon that examines what might have happened if the astronauts had crash-landed there.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency: David Kopple, JP Evans

Manager: The Gotham Group: Lindsay Williams

Producer: FilmNation

30 votes: “Maggie” by John Scott 3

As a “walking dead” virus spreads across the country, a farm family helps their eldest daughter come to terms with her infection as she slowly becomes a flesh-eating zombie.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency: Billy Hawkins, Dan Rabinow

Manager: Trevor Kaufman

Producer: Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

30 votes: “The Current War” by Michael Mitnick

Based on the true story of the race between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to develop a practical system of electricity and sell their respective inventions to the country and the world.

Agency: William Morris Endeavor — Simon Faber

Manager: Fourth Floor Productions — Jeff Silver

28 votes: “The End” by Aron Eli Coleite

Four people — a veteran broadcaster in London, a 16-year-old girl and her boyfriend in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a devoted family man in Shanghai — each try to make peace with their lives before an interstellar event ends the world in six hours.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency — Matt Rosen

Producer: Warner Bros.

27 votes: “Beyond the Pale” by Chad Feehan

Based on William Gay’s novel “Twilight,” teenage siblings suspect they’ve been ripped off by the town undertaker, but what they discover is much more sinister.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency — Matt Rosen, Jacqueline Sacerio

Manager: Management 360 — Guymon Casady, Mary Lee

Producers: Feehan’s The Fort producing for Vendome Pictures

27 votes: “Ezekiel Moss” by Keith Bunin

A mysterious stranger who possibly has the power to channel the souls of the dead changes the lives of everyone in a small Nebraska town, especially a young widow and her 11-year-old son.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency — Rowena Arguelles

Manager: Kaplan/Perrone — Alex Lerner, Sean Perrone

Producers: A Likely Story and Mandalay Pictures

24 votes: “Grace of Monaco” by Arash Amel

Grace Kelly, age 33, has given up her acting career to focus on being a full-time princess. She uses her political maneuvering behind the scenes to save Monaco while French leader Charles De Gaulle and Monaco’s Prince Rainer III are at odds over Monaco’s standing as a tax haven.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency — Rich Green, Matt Rosen

Producer: Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

24 votes: “He’s F****n Perfect” by Lauryn Kahn

A social media-savvy girl who is pessimistic about love finds the perfect guy and decides to use her Internet research skills to turn herself into his perfect match.

Agency: William Morris Endeavor — Cliff Roberts

Producer: Gary Sanchez producing for Fox 2000

23 votes: “Bethlehem” by Larry Brenner

A group of people struggling to survive a zombie apocalypse make an alliance with a vampire, trading themselves as food in exchange for protection since zombies don’t eat vampires.

Agency: Creative Artists Agency — Martin Spencer, Jacqueline Sacerio

Managers: Magnet Management — Mitch Solomon

Producers: Roth Films

20 votes: “Powell” by Ed Whitworth

Based on the true story of Colin Powell questioning the Bush administration leading up to his United Nations presentation where he made the case for going to war with Iraq.

A prequel to the story of Pinocchio in which Geppetto endures a life of misfortune, war and adventure, all to be with Julia Moon, his true love.

Agency: International Creative Management– Ava Jamshidi

Producers: Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps producing for Twentieth Century Fox

19 votes: “The Knoll” by Christopher Cantwell, Christopher Rogers

A rookie cop and his potential flame witness John F. Kennedy gunned down from the grassy knoll on Nov. 22, 1963. Within hours, they are on the run from the murderers who desperately need them silenced.

Agency: ICM — Aaron Hart

Manager: Management 360 — Jennifer Graham, Chris Huvane

Producers: Management 360

17 votes: “A Many Splintered Thing” by Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair

When a charming heartbreaker finally meets a girl he can’t have, he discovers the true meaning of love by living out other people’s love stories and writing his own.

Agency: United Talent Agency — Jon Huddle, Max Michael

Manager: Brillstein Entertainment Partners — Missy Malkin

Producers: Wonderland Sound and Vision

17 votes: “Bastards” by Justin Malen

Two brothers, raised to believe their biological father died, find out their mother slept with many powerful and famous men in the 1970s, and the siblings hit the road to find their real father.

Agency: Verve — Bill Weinstein, Rob Herting

Manager: H2F — Chris Fenton

Producers: The Montecito Picture Co. producing for Paramount Pictures

17 votes: “Blood Mountain” by Jonathan Stokes

After his team is ambushed and killed in Pakistan, a young Army Ranger must escort the world’s most wanted terrorist over dangerous terrain in order to bring him to justice. While being hunted by both of their enemies, they must find a way to work together in order to survive.

Agency: UTA — Rames Ishak, Michael Sheresky, Geoff Morley

Manager: Energy Entertainment — Brooklyn Weaver

17 votes: “Crazy for the Storm” by Will Fetters

The true story of Norman Ollestad’s relationship with his father, who thrust the boy into the world of extreme surfing and competitive downhill skiing at the age of 3. But it was that experience that allowed an 11-year-old Norman to survive a plane crash amid a blizzard in the San Gabriel mountains.

Agency: WME — Elia Infascelli-Smith

Manager: 3 Arts Entertainment — Oliver Obst

Producers: Billy Gerber producing for Warner Bros.

17 votes: “Desperate Hours” by E Nicolas Mariani

A small town crippled by World War I and the Spanish flu finds itself facing major moral questions and a brutal invading force when a young girl shows up on a rancher’s doorstep covered in blood.

Agency: UTA — Charles Ferraro, Jenny Maryasis

Manager: Circle of Confusion — Britton Rizzio

Producers: Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil producing for GK Films

17 votes: “Flarsky” by Daniel Sterling

A political journalist courts his old babysitter, who is now the secretary of State.

Agency: UTA — Julien Thuan

Producers: Point Grey Pictures

17 votes: “How to Disappear Completely” by Ed Solomon

A child prodigy tries to take control of his life away from his demanding parents.

Agency: CAA — Jay Baker, Todd Feldman, David O’Connor

Producers: Escape Artists producing for Sony Pictures

16 votes: “The Slackfi Project” by Howard Overman

A hapless and brokenhearted barista is visited by two soldiers from the future who tell him mankind is doomed, and he alone can save them.

Agency: UTA — Julien Thuan

Producers: Matt Tolmach Productions producing for Sony Pictures

14 votes: “Django Unchained” by Quentin Tarantino

A freed slave named Django is trained as a bounty hunter by a German dentist named Schultz, and the two men set out to find Django’s enslaved wife.

Agency: WME — Mike Simpson

Producers: Weinstein Co. producing for a co-release between Weinstein and Sony Pictures

14 votes: “St. Vincent de Van Nuys” by Ted Melfi

When a 12-year-old in need of a babysitter moves in next door to a misanthropic aging retiree whose life mainly consists of gambling, hookers and drinking, the elder becomes an unlikely mentor to the boy.

Lucy, a 28-year-old junior curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is sleeping with her boss. When he dumps her she begins a collection of “break up items” and starts a blog that goes viral.

Agency: CAA — Jessica Matthews

Manager: The Gotham Group — Jim Garavente, Jeremy Bell

13 votes: “Saving Mr. Banks” by Kelly Marcel

The story of how Walt Disney got the rights to “Mary Poppins.”

Agency: WME — Phil Raskind, David Karp

Producer: Ruby Films

13 votes: “The Accountant” by Bill Duburque

The Treasury Department pursues a brilliant, autistic accountant who doubles as an assassin and “problem solves” with precision in more ways than one.

Agency: Paradigm — Trevor Astbury

Manager: Zero Gravity Management — Eric Williams

Producers: Silverwood Films

12 votes: “Bridges on the Fort Point Channel” by Chuck Maclean

An Irish family in the 1970s, dealing with the loss of their father and the busing of black kids into their white neighborhoods, decides to blow up all the bridges in Boston.

Agency: CAA — Billy Hawkins

Manager: Oasis Media Group — Allison Doyle, Ben Rowe

12 votes: “Cities of Refuge” by Brandon Willer

A former FBI psychologist is called into investigate when a young girl goes missing after the apparent murder of her father and brother by two strangers in a small Oklahoma town.

Agency: WME — Phil D’amecourt, Jeff Gorin

Manager: Benderspink — Jake Weiner

Producers: Charlize Theron’s Denver and Delilah Productions

12 votes: “Good Kids” by Chris McCoy

Four overachieving high-school students in Cape Cod reinvent themselves during the summer after graduation.

Agency: WME — Simon Faber, Jeff Gorin, Sharon Jackson

Manager: The Gotham Group — Shawn Simon

Producers: Chris and Paul Weitz’s Depth of Field

12 votes — “The Big Stone Grid” by Craig Zahler

A cop is pulled into an underworld organization that brutally murders people to extort money out of others.

Agency: UTA — Julien Thuan, Emerson Davis

Manager: Caliber Media — Dallas Sonnier

Producers: Michael De Luca Productions producing for Sony Pictures

11 votes: “Dirty Grandpa” by John Phillips

A young groom engaged to a demanding woman is forced to spend the week before his wedding with his half-blind, half-crazy, and wholly horny grandfather. Through his wild journey, his grandfather shows him how to live life to the fullest and lead with his heart.

Agency: UTA — Jon Huddle

Producers: Josephson Entertainment for Universal Pictures

11 votes: “Grim Night” by Allen Bey, Brandon Bestenheider

A family has to defend themselves from the Grims, strange creatures who attack Earth and kill thousands one night every year.

A recently divorced author is stunned when his ex writes a popular book about their breakup and he has to keep that fact secret from his new girlfriend, who works for the book’s publisher.

Agency: CAA — Bill Zotti, Andy Elkins

10 votes: “Little White Corvette” by Michael Diliberti

A down-and-out brother and sister go to Miami to sell a duffel bag of cocaine that they found in the trunk of a Corvette left them by their dead father.

Agency: WME — Phil Raskind, Simon Faber

Manager: New School Media — Brian Levy

Producer: Scott Aversano Productions

10 votes: “Sex Tape” by Kate Angelo

When a married couple make a sex tape to spice up their relationship, it disappears, and they are frantic to get it back.

Agency: UTA — Jason Burns

Producers: Escape Artists for Sony Pictures

10 votes — “The Flamingo Thief” by Mike Lesieur

Grief-stricken over his wife leaving him, a man finds solace in an odd activity… swiping figurines of flamingos.

Agency: CAA — Rich Green, Adam Kanter

Manager: Kaplan/Perrone — Sean Perrone

Producers: Kaplan/Perrone, Red Hour

10 votes: “The Gun Eaters” by Alex Paraskevas, Jordan Goldberg

Four hardened New York detectives race to apprehend a relentless spree-killer who’s executing victims from Queens to Southampton in the span of a single day.

Agency: UTA — Rebecca Ewing, Keya Khayatian

Manager: Oasis Media Group — Ben Rowe

Producer: Oasis Media Group

10 votes: “Two Night Stand” by Mark Hammer

After an extremely regrettable one-night stand, two strangers wake up to find themselves snowed in after sleeping through a blizzard that put all of Manhattan on ice. They’re now trapped together in a tiny apartment, forced to get to know each other ways more than any one-night stand should.

Agency: UTA — Carolyn Sivitz

Manager: The Safran Co., Tom Drumm

10 votes: “Watch Roger Do His Thing” by Michael Starrbury

A retired hit man gets roped back into the mob business to save his friend’s life and quickly finds himself caught in a struggle trying to finish the job, and get his family out Chicago alive at the same time.

9 votes: “Flashback” by Will Honley

A former NASA pilot with amnesia — also the first person to travel the speed of light — realizes he has the ability to travel back in time and along the way rediscovers his love for his life.

Agency: Adam Levine

Manager: Nuclear Entertainment — Nick Fariabi, Jesse Silver

9 votes: “Friend of Bill” by Harper Dill

After a humiliating episode in New York, a young woman returns to her hometown and tries to deal with her alcoholism.

Agency: WME — Sarah Self, Jeff Gorin, Sharon Jackson

Manager: Mike Dill

Producers: Marc Platt Productions, Neda Armian

9 votes: “Jane Got a Gun” by Brian Duffield

After her outlaw husband returns home barely alive with eight bullet wounds, Jane reluctantly reaches out to an ex-lover whom she hasn’t seen in over 10 years to help her defend her farm when the time comes that her husband’s gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job.

Agency: Gersh — Devra Lieb, Bob Hohman, Bayard Maybank

Manager: Circle of Confusion — Zach Cox, Noah Rosen

9 votes: “Murders and Acquisitions” by Jonathan Stokes

The world of high-stakes finance collides with that of high-priced hit men when an ousted chief executive decides to hire an assassin to kill the corporate raider who stole his company.

Agency: UTA — Ramses Ishak, Michael Sheresky, Geoff Morley

Manager: Energy Entertainment — Brooklyn Weaver

Producers: KatzSmith Productions for Warner Bros.

9 votes: “The Last Drop” by Brandon Murphy, Phil Murphy

A fully functioning alcoholic meets the girl of his dreams and soon discovers that there’s a lot more at stake than love if he doesn’t clean up his act.

Agency: WME — Rich Cook

Manager: Mosaic — Langley Perer

Producers: Greg Shapiro and Mandate Pictures

9 votes: “The Last Witness” by Stefan Jaworski

An FBI agent interrogates an amnesiac, sole survivor of a Boston bombing in order to prevent future terrorist attacks.

Agency: Paradigm — Trevor Astbury, Valarie Phillips, Ida Ziniti

Producers: Davis Entertainment for Fox

8 votes: “Bad Words” by Andrew Dodge

The bastard child of the organizer of the national spelling bee gets his revenge by finding a loophole and attempting to win the bee as an adult, only to find friendship in a young Indian contestant.

Agency: UTA — Carolyn Sivitz

Manager: Fourth Floor Productions — Jeff Silver

Producers: MXN and Darko Productions

8 votes: “Dead of Winter” by Sarah Conradt

A teenage girl heads to a remote cabin in the mountains with her father and new stepmother–an experience the father hopes will bond the two. But when a mysterious wounded park ranger shows up, family bonding will be the least of their concerns.

Secretly imprisoned in a London insane asylum, the infamous Jack the Ripper helps Scotland Yard investigators solve a series of grisly murders whose victims all share one thing in common: dual puncture wounds to the neck.

Agency: WME — Dan Cohan, Mike Esola

Manager: Prolific — Will Rowbotham

8 votes: “Home by Christmas — Bob Hope in Korea” by Ben Schwartz

Young Larry Gelbart goes on tour with his idol Bob Hope in the middle of the Korean War and learns the true price of heroism.

Agency: The Nethercott Agency — Gayla Nethercott

Producer: Jon Shestack Productions

8 votes: “Jurassic Park” by Imran Zaidi

A high school couple and two of their friends ditch school to catch a special preview screening of “Jurassic Park.”

Agency: UTA — Jason Burns, Jenny Maryasis

Manager: Management 360 — Darin Friedman

8 votes: “On a Clear Day” by Ryan Engle

When a powerful and mysterious force invades an American city, a young father must traverse the battle-worn town in an effort to save his wounded wife and rescue their stranded children. In the process, our hero becomes the target of an enemy who will stop at nothing to kill him.

Agency: Original Artists — Chris Sablan, Matt Leipzig

Manager: Mosaic — Michael Lasker, Langley Perer

Producer: Ombra Films

8 votes: “The Pretty One” by Jenee LaMarque

When a woman’s identical, “prettier” twin sister dies, the woman assumes her sister’s identity, moving into her apartment and the big city.

Agency: UTA — Carolyn Sivitz

Manager: Management 360 — Mary Lee, Daniel Rappaport

Producer: RCR Pictures, Steven J. Berger

7 votes: “77? by David Matthews

Two stories from 1974 are linked together — the unsolved murder of an Los Angeles Police Department officer and the nationally televised shootout in South Los Angeles between the members of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the LAPD in which 50,000 rounds of gunfire were exchanged. The events will be seen through the eyes of a pair of police partners, one black and one white.

Agency: WME — Roger Green, Elia Infascelli-Smith

Manager: The Schiff Co. — Nicole Romano

Producer: Wolf Films

7 votes: “Christo” by Ian Shorr

A man is unlawfully sentenced to an infamous prison and escapes, then transforms himself into the mysterious Christo and systematically destroys the men who manipulated and enslaved him.

After a military coup takes out the executive branch of government, the country’s survival depends on a Navy SEAL sniper extraction team getting the speaker of the House from Washington to New York.

Agency: WME — Dan Cohan Mike Esola

Manager: H2F — Chris Fenton, Chris Cowles

Producer: Silver Pictures producing for Warner Bros.

7 votes: “Pinocchio” by Bryan Fuller

A new adaptation of the story of the famous wooden puppet Pinocchio, who dreams of becoming a real boy.

Agency: WME — Phil D’amecourt

Producer: Dan Jinks Co. producing for Warner Bros.

7 votes: “Subject Zero” by Dave Cohen

A Frankenstein-like tale of a scientist who develops a powerful new drug that brings his son back to life after he dies in a car accident. Unfortunately, the desperate experiment of a loving father leads to the creation of a flesh-eating zombie epidemic with horrific consequences.

Agency: ICM — Kathleen Remingon, Emile Gladstone

Manager: Generate — Jeremy Platt

7 votes: “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” by Tom O’Connor

The world’s best bodyguard must protect his arch nemesis, the world’s top assassin, so he can testify against a brutal dictator and save his wife.

Agency: UTA — Charles Ferraro, Barbara Dreyfus, Emerson Davis

Manager: Industry Entertainment — Andrew Deane, Jess Rosenthal.

Producer: Skydance Productions

7 votes: “The Wedding” by Andrew Goldberg

A group of couples deal with their respective issues as they attend a wedding.

Agency: WME — Rich Cook

Manager: Underground Films and Management — Josh Turner Maguire

Producer: CBS Films

7 votes: “Untitled Hlavin Heist” by John Hlavin

An American thief living in Paris is coerced into pulling of a complex heist in order to save his kidnapped wife.

Agency — UTA — Jason Burns

Producer: Film Rites producing for Dreamworks

6 votes: “Before I Fall” by Maria Maggenti

When a popular teen girl is killed in a car crash, she relives the crucial day seven times and makes changes in an attempt to affect the outcome; in the process, she herself changes as she tries to make up for previous heartless, self-absorbed behavior and gains a better understanding of herself and others. She makes the connections necessary to save a bullied, depressed girl’s life and comes to accept her own fate.

Agency: Paradigm — David Boxerbaum

Manager: Madhouse Entertainment — Robyn Meisinger

Producer: Jon Shestack Productions producing for Fox 2000

6 votes: “Breyton Ave” by J. Daniel Shaffer

A group of teens living without adults and under their own social order in a small fenced-in neighborhood are forced to face what they fear is the inevitable physical danger beyond the fence.

Agency: Verve — Bryan Besser, Rob Herting

Manager: Management 360 — Mary Lee, Jill McElroy

Producer: Unbroken Films

6 votes: “El Fuego Caliente” by Ben Schwartz

A remake of “Soapdish,” a desperate telenovela star dreaming of Hollywood stardom has her life implode, making her real life crazier than the insane show she made famous.

Agency: WME — Rich Cook

Manager: Tom Sawyer Entertainment — Jesse Hara, Rachel Miller

Producer: Reiner-Greisman producing for Paramount Pictures

6 votes: “Guys Night” by Christopher Baldi

Sick of brunches, bosses and light beer, four co-workers set out on the mother of all guys’ nights in an attempt to rediscover their manhood.

Agency: CAA — Bill Zotti

Manager: New Wave — Mike Goldberg, Josh Adler

Producer: Jim Valdez, Matt Bass producing for Millennium Films

6 votes: “Hyperdrive” by Alex Ankeles, Morgan Jurgenson

When a tough cop recruits a geeky sci-fi author to help him track down a mysterious murder witness, they find themselves in the middle of a space opera playing out here on Earth.

Agency: CAA/APA: Bill Zotti (Ankeles), Ryan Saul (Jurgenson)

Manager: Kaplan/Perrone (Ankeles)

Producer: Disruption Entertainment producing for Paramount Pictures

6 votes: “Self/Less” by Alex Pastor, David Pastor

An extremely wealthy, elderly man dying from cancer undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness to the body of a healthy young man, but everything may not be as good as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body’s origins and the secret organization that will kill to keep its secrets.

About the author

Rollo Tomasi

A college graduate who started Film-Book.com, ProMovieBlogger.com, and TrendingAwards.com after attending an eCommerce class in Business School. Cinema and TV addict. Former writer at Empire Movies. In addition to writing for FilmBook, ProMovieBlogger, and TrendingAwards, he also edits the copy published on the websites, manages their writing staff, back-end operations, site finances, social media accounts, and works with publicists, actors, and companies on press coverage and promotions.